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Mugabe to post propaganda chief to UN |
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Zim Online (SA)
Date posted:Wed 15-Dec-2004
Date published:Wed 15-Dec-2004
"He will keep Moyo here until after March because he knows he needs him for the election"
Harare - President Robert Mugabe will reassign his abrasive information minister and propaganda chief, Jonathan Moyo, to a top diplomatic post, possibly as Zimbabwe's new ambassador to the United Nations (UN), sources told Zim Online yesterday. The sources said other senior ruling Zanu PF party leaders, long angry with Moyo over what they perceive as his arrogance and disrespectful manner, had taken advantage of his fallout with Mugabe to push for his dismissal from the government altogether.
The senior Zanu PF leaders, who the sources said include party and state First Vice-President Joseph Msika and chairman, John Nkomo, wanted Moyo replaced by his permanent secretary and long-time Mugabe spokesman, George Charamba. "The President (Mugabe) agrees to stern measures against Moyo but he feels he can benefit from his combativeness and hardworking nature by tasking him to defend his policies at the UN," a senior Zanu PF official said yesterday. According to the party official, who did not want to be named, Moyo was likely to replace Boniface Chidyausiku as Zimbabwe's ambassador at the UN only after the March 2005 election. "He (Mugabe) will keep Moyo here until after March because he knows he needs him for the election," the official said.
Mugabe, who two weeks ago blocked Moyo's nomination to Zanu PF's central committee, is expected to punish him further by dropping him from the party's inner politburo cabinet on Friday. Until three weeks ago, Moyo was one of Mugabe's most powerful and trusted confidantes. But the two fell out after Moyo led a secret plot to block plans by Mugabe to appoint Joyce Mujuru as the second vice-president of Zanu PF. Mugabe, who publicly voiced his displeasure with Moyo, has since suspended six of Zanu PF's 10 provincial chairmen because they had worked with Moyo in his plot to scupper the appointment of Mujuru. Mujuru, who has since been appointed state second vice-president is now firmly positioned to succeed Mugabe as Zanu PF and possibly Zimbabwe's president given that Mugabe and Msika are set to retire at the same time in 2008. According to the sources, parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom Moyo wanted appointed vice-president was however going to keep his job as Zanu PF's secretary for administration and possibly at Parliament as well. A fierce proponent for democracy and arch-critic of Mugabe, Moyo swapped sides in 1999 to become the chief defender of the Zimbabwean leader and his policies. Appointed information minister in 2000, Moyo has in the last four years crafted tough media laws that have seen hundreds of journalists jailed and three newspapers including Zimbabwe's biggest and only independent daily paper, the Daily News, shut down.
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